The invention concerns a compartment, for instance, a vehicle compartment, or a lined compartment found in public places, such as restrooms, hotel lobbies or the like, provided with light emissive lining. Generally, a compartment is understood as a room in a building or vehicle, in particular, a passenger compartment or storage compartment. In such places, lining may be provided on any of the inner surfaces of the compartment, such as compartment floor, sidewalls or compartment ceiling, functioning as acoustic damping and/or shielding against thermal influences, wear and tear or even for decorative purposes.
The illumination may be integral with a passenger seat in a vehicle or with a door into the passenger compartment.
The illumination may be integral with the interior of the compartment, e.g. a wall, floor or roof. Thus the illumination may be integral with a roof lining in an automobile or the like. A plurality of such illuminators may be arranged in the vehicle.
The compartment may comprise a plastics or fibrous molded component in or forming part of the compartment, and the light emissive lining may be integral with the component.
Where light emissive systems are incorporated in vehicles, the light emissive lining principle allows them to be fully integrated in prefabricated units including related services such as roof lights and related control and display technology served by as little as one wiring harness for reduced assembly cost. In addition the integration of more advanced facilities in, for example, a vehicle roof lining, adds engineering value to this product.
The integration of illumination systems with vehicle design is an important aspect of modern practice. The light emissive lining of the present invention is uniquely suited to these applications where unobtrusive even totally concealed illumination systems may be designed.
Vehicle components which are provided with light emissive lining may include parcel shelves, head linings and door interior panels.
In manufacture, small light emissive linings may be molded into place in a headlining or the like to simplify construction. An light emissive lining according to the present invention may be incorporated in a conventional vehicle using, for example, existing or partially modified surfaces, or by molding and suitable attachment of the light emissive lining to the different linings and trimmings of the vehicle, for example in panels of the headrest remote from occupant head contact.
The light emissive lining can be attached to or installed in the vacuum-forming or other molding process of the internal trimmings, in particular the headlining, the door-lining, parcel-shelf, sun visor or the dashboard of an automobile.
In a particular application, a vehicle foot-well can be provided with a light emissive lining as herein described. In addition, side walls and roof lining can be equipped with the light emissive lining.
WO2006/057531 discloses a light-emitting mat for vehicles. The light-emitting mat comprises a carpet part covered with lots of cilia for the purposes of soundproofing, warmth and impact-absorption and having an opening at a portion thereof; a transparent decoration plate having decorative patterns which correspond to a shape of the opening of the carpet part and supporting the carpet part; a support plate having a recess with a shape which corresponds to the shape of the opening and the decorative patterns for supporting the transparent decoration plate; a transparent light-emitting plate having a size that allows it to be mounted in the recess of the support plate; a plurality of LEDs installed in a plurality of insertion grooves, respectively, formed along edges of the transparent light-emitting plate; a power supply unit for supplying electric power to the light-emitting diodes; and a binder for binding the carpet part, the transparent decoration plate and the support plate.
DE102006012606 discloses an interior lining for a vehicle that is light emissive. The lining is formed as a woven textile sheet, which is placed in front of a planar light source provided on a molded component. The woven textile sheet structure may impact the light transmissivity of the lining, and may have less favorable acoustic properties since the thickness of the sheet affects the light transmissivity while thinner sheets reduce acoustic isolation/damping properties.